Roland CR-8000 Modded

via this auction

"Classic Roland drum machine from 1980 with 13 analogue drums including: kick, snare, lo/hi toms, open/closed hi-hats, cymbal, cowbell & lo/mid/hi congas. It sounds a little like a cross between a CR-78 and a TR-808. This unit has the full set of Analogue Solutions modifications - MIDI, tonal controls, individual outputs - at a cost of £300. (That was several years ago & I think Tom Carpenter has raised his prices since then!)...

The unit has also had the following mods fitted by Tom Carpenter of Analogue Solutions here in the UK:

- MIDI: note on/off of all drums except the 3 congas. Accent is available via velocity - high value on/low value off, amount set by the Accent pot. Accent is only available on the voices designed to respond to it in the original spec - not clap, cowbell, or clave. The mod does not support MIDI Clock or Time Code.

- Tonal: BD Tune 1/2, SD Tune/Decay/Snappy, Clap Snap/Filter, HH/CY Filter, HH Decay, CB Tune 1/2 & Decay, LT Tune, HT Tune. BD Tune 2 does nothing - a design flaw on Analogue Solutions behalf rather than a fault apparently.

- Individual Outs: 6 outputs on 3.5mm jacks corresponding to the 6 level pots with drums grouped together according to original design. The level pots do not affect the volume at the individual outs.

This unit has been in storage for 2 years and on testing, I have found the following problems with the mods:

- MIDI: accent via velocity is only audible over the Main output.

- Tonal: the Filter & Snap on the Clap voice do not function correctly - the noise component (the Snap) of the voice is louder than it should be and the Filter pot does not reduce the noise as it should. The pitch of LT & HT Tune mods can be unstable and can interact with each other.

- Individual Outs: at very high Tune or Filter settings there is some high frequency noise in the voice channels, particularly in the cowbell."

The War of Synthesis

via marcel

And more generic wall papers below.

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RIP Isaak Hayes

Isaac Hayes - Shaft

YouTube via lastangelman.

As you know, posts have to be about the synth, well.. spot the synths in the beginning of this video.

"Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. (August 20, 1942 -- August 10, 2008)[1] was an American soul and funk singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, composer and actor. Hayes was one of the main creative forces behind southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served as both an in-house songwriter and producer with partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. In the late 1960s, Hayes became a recording artist, and recorded successful soul albums such as Hot Buttered Soul (1969) and Black Moses (1971) as the Stax label's premier artist.

Alongside his work in popular music, Hayes was a film score composer for motion pictures. His best known work, for the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft, earned Hayes an Academy Award for Best Original Song (the first Academy Award received by an African-American in a non-acting category) and two Grammy Awards. He received a third Grammy for the album Black Moses.

In 1992, in recognition of his humanitarian work, he was crowned an honorary king of Ghana's Ada district. From 1997 to 2006, he provided the voice for the character "Chef" on the Comedy Central animated TV series South Park.

Hayes was found dead in his Memphis home on August 10, 2008 as reported by the Shelby County sheriff's department. His death came 10 days before his 66th birthday.[1]
[2]Here is a complete slo-mo video clip of Isaac Hayes conducting the Theme from Shaft, which won an Oscar for best song."

Black Sunday Patch

via mono-poly's public channel

Synth.nl AtmoSphere Studio 1 (2008)

YouTube via Synthnl. synthnl.blogspot.com
"Here you see an overview of my current 'AtmoSphere' Studio. In the background you here some music coming from this setup that will on on my new 'AtmoSphere' album to be released in October 2008"

iZotope iDrum for the iPhone

"making beats is fun. for everyone!

iDrum© is the addictive app that lets you create your own beats, even if you have no musical experience! Start with iDrum’s selection of amazing kits and patterns, then customize them to make them your own. Build beats layer by layer by tapping the touch screen or create music with simple shapes and color combinations that let you visualize the rhythm.

making beats is fun. for everyone!

iDrum© is the addictive app that lets you create your own beats, even if you have no musical experience! Start with iDrum’s selection of amazing kits and patterns, then customize them to make them your own. Build beats layer by layer by tapping the touch screen or create music with simple shapes and color combinations that let you visualize the rhythm.

what is it?
- the fun and simple way to make music on your iPhone or iPod touch
- customize patterns to create your own unique beats
- includes extensive library of amazing sounds
- take control of the rhythm of every drum sound and sample
- tap the touch screen to play and record your own musical patterns
- Easily turn your beats into ringtones for your iPhone!*

*Note: requires free iDrum Ringtone Sync application for your Mac or PC. iDrum Ringtone Sync links iDrum to your iTunes Ringtones library to make the process simple."


You can get iDrum Hip Hop Edition here:

You can get iDrum Club Edition here:

Logic Switch

YouTube via dkimcg
"Model 26 is used with the Model 14 to create the logic to turn on and off the Model 28 Programmable Tap Clock. I got inspired while watching James Cigler's Model 28 video and thought I'd give it a try on a patch that's setup now. Kinda neat, not super useful w/o a lot of modules, but it was nice to see analog logic working in my modular."

Trance 001

YouTube via VintSynth. Spot the synths.
"The first trance track from the VintSynth Studio"

EMU Emax HD

images via this auction

inside an Emax HD

KORG Delta

images via this auction
"Korg's fully polyphonic Delta is a pretty unique synth. The synth section allows you to combine oscillator footages and has its own ADSR, while the string section has an EQ and a simple AD envelope generator. The two can be combined so you can have a percussive synth sound followed by swelling strings. Both sections go through a gorgeous sounding filter that switches between low pass and band pass. The filter can be swept from the joystick, which can also modulate both the filter and oscillator with the LFO or, oddly, the noise source. Overall a nice surprise and sonically unique compared to Korg's Poly-Ensemble, Lambda, or Sigma."

Some samples at the auction while it's up.